Every day an ‘extremely dangerous day’ on roads
The media have dubbed the Songkran holiday the “Seven Dangerous Days”, during which 418 were killed by road accidents this year, or about 60 per day.
Nonetheless, not a single media outlet mentioned the average road deaths on a typical day in Thailand as a baseline to compare with Songkran deaths. You’ll be surprised to learn that an average of 24,000 people – a conservative estimate – die by road accidents each year in Thailand, or about 66 per day, compared to 60 during the past Songkran.
So if we call Songkran the “Seven Dangerous Days”, we should call any day in Thailand “Extremely Dangerous Day”.
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakarn
